Traditional surgical procedures for pathologies located deep within the body can cause significant trauma to the intervening tissues. These open procedures often require a long incision, extensive muscle stripping, prolonged retraction of tissues, denervation and devascularization of tissue. These surgeries can require operating room time of several hours and several weeks of post-operative recovery time due to the use of general anesthesia and the destruction of tissue during the surgical procedure. In some cases, these invasive procedures lead to permanent scarring and pain that can be more severe than the pain leading to the surgical intervention.
The development of percutaneous procedures has yielded a major improvement in reducing recovery time and post-operative pain because minimal muscle and tissue dissection is required and the procedures can be performed under local anesthesia. For example, minimally invasive surgical techniques are desirable for spinal and neurosurgical applications because of the need for access to locations deep within the body and the danger of damage to vital intervening tissues. While developments in minimally invasive surgery are steps in the right direction, there remains a need for further development in minimally invasive surgical devices and techniques that facilitate tissue retraction at locations within the body.